The present invention relates to a method and device for delivering, in the lying-flat condition, book blocks or books which are fed in, standing on their back or on the front cut and at defined timing intervals along their height, from a preceding machine in a transport path.
In bookbinding, during final processing the book block is united with the book cover to form the book (book-casing-in machine) and is subjected to final shaping (fold-burning-in and pressing machine). The finished book is then completed, depending upon the get-up of the books, with various additional elements, such as, for example, a protective jacket (protective-jacket wrapping machine) and supplements (slipping-in machine). For further processing, for example packing and/or pelletizing, the books are usually arranged one above another in layers to form stacks of books. In industrial bookbinding, the individual machines necessary for these purposes are often coupled to one another to form production sections, emergency delivery apparatuses being provided at suitable points in the production section in order to maintain operating capability. In many cases, these emergency delivery apparatuses are coupled to book-stacking apparatuses in order, on the one hand, to permit orderly emergency delivery and, on the other, to feed books which have already been given their desired get-up by the time of this delivery, out of the production section and into stacks of books in a regular manner.
In known book-stacking apparatuses, the books are fed, in the lying-flat condition, to a lifting apparatus which operates in a timed manner and which lifts the books into a stacking shaft. In this operation, a newly fed-in book is raised under the stack of books which has hitherto been formed, while blocking pawls, which protrude laterally into the stacking shaft and can be disengaged, prevent the stack which has been formed from dropping back down. Rotating apparatuses are mostly disposed upstream of the book-stacking apparatuses for selectively rotating, by 180°, the books that have been fed in a timed manner, which makes possible book-stacking patterns with books which lie one above the other with the front cut and the back alternately.
In the known fold-burning-in and pressing machines, the books are moved forwards intermittently, along their back and standing on the latter, the said books being transported onwards with transporting tongs which are moved forward and back and which engage in the folds of the books; whereas, when the backward movement of the transporting tongs occurs, the books are clamped in between pressing plates that act on the sides of the book over the entire surface area thereof. The books are thus transported in a timed manner. In the feeding-out system of the fold-burning-in and pressing machine, the books are picked up laterally by a clamping gripper which is moved in the opposite direction to the transporting tongs, and are transferred into a delivering position. If the fold-burning-in and pressing machine forms the end of a production section, the books are deposited, in the delivery position, onto a transporting band at the side with an ejector rake. An alternative variant for the feeding-out system is intended for coupling to the protective-jacket wrapping machine, through the fact that the books pass, in the delivery position, onto a continuously driven feeding-out band which conveys them onwards by frictional-contact entrainment.
In the protective-jacket wrapping machine, continuous conveying of the books, which continue to stand on their backs, is brought about, fixed timing intervals being realized through the fact that the books are conveyed resting, with their head or foot side, against entrainment means belonging to the transporting band carrying said books, which entrainment means are disposed at equal mutual intervals from one another. Here too, the books are transported forwards in a timed manner as a result of fixed timing intervals, so that pre-arranged cyclic feeding is necessary. In the feeding-out system of the protective-jacket wrapping machine, the books are conveyed against a stop and deposited onto a transporting band at the side. In a similar manner, the books are also delivered, in the lying-flat condition, in the emergency delivery apparatus which is sometimes disposed between the fold-burning-in and pressing machine and the protective-jacket wrapping machine.
After each delivery of the books in the lying-flat condition, said books are transported onwards by frictional contact connection on the transporting bands, which are preferably disposed transversely to the original direction of conveyance, with the back or the front cut foremost, and are optionally fed to book-stacking apparatuses. The timed conveying operation still existing in the preceding machines (fold-burning-in and pressing machine, emergency delivery apparatus, protective-jacket wrapping machine) is lost in the aforesaid delivery apparatuses and has to be brought about again, with a comparatively high technical outlay (on components and a control system), in the infeed system of the book-stacking apparatuses connected downstream. Another disadvantage is the deposition and onward conveyance, which are somewhat damaging to the product, of the books which have just been cased in, shaped and, optionally, further got up.